Sign
Synopsis Prologue It is raining outside of a wooden house. Inside, the kidnapped Inukai Toshiki shivers with his mouth, hands, and feet bound with tape. The kidnapper without the cap asks him how he is and promises to summon him a doctor as he removes the tape. The boy seems to be holding his stomach. The kidnapper reminds him not to say anything unnecessary to the doctor and that they do not actually want to hurt him. A red car arrives at the house and stops. The kidnapper with the cap enters with Irie behind him. Irie immediately notes that the boy is not from the village. The kidnapper without the hat explains that he is taking care of a relative. When Irie asks the boy what is wrong, he lifts his shirt to reveal a surgical scar. The boy explains that he received the scar after a car accident the previous winter. When Irie repeats, "accident," Toshiki stares at him intently. Irie startles. First Half Ōishi drives Akasaka and asks him if he is nervous. Akasaka laughs it off, but Ōishi knowingly assures him that "it'll be okay." He left a message to his colleagues they were going to Hinamizawa's environs. Akasaka notices Rika staring sadly at them on a hill in the rain, and the scene focuses on her right eye. Akasaka follows her as they pass, eventually staring out of the rear window, as Ōishi continues that the Takatsudo district is past where they are. He then reminds Akasaka to disengage the safety on his gun. As they pass old and decrepit houses, Ōishi explains that people actually lived in them until a few years ago. Akasaka questions how the wallet could be found in such an isolated area. Ōishi explains that there are some villagers who have fields in the mountains and pass through the area in the mornings and evenings. When Akasaka asks if they travel on foot, Ōishi laughs and says that they travel by car as far as they can. Akasaka asks how could they find the wallet while driving. Ōishi explains that the guy who found it had to rush into the bushes to relieve his stomachache. As Akasaka accepts this explanation, Ōishi notices Irie's red car passing them in the other direction. He stops Irie's car and calls out to him. Irie reacts surprised to see him, and Ōishi replies that he feels the same then asks Irie why is he out here. Irie answers that it was just for a house call. When Ōishi asks if it was an emergency, Irie replies that it was not but it disturbed him. The two police officers react startled. They drive their car to the house where the kidnappers are hiding. As they exit the car, the kidnapper without a cap watches them through the window. The kidnapper with the cap asks if they are forest rangers, but the other recognizes that they are police. He instructs the other to escape with Inukai while he buys them some time. The kidnapper with the cap carries Inukai through a back window while Ōishi pounds on the door and identifies himself as a police officer. The kidnapper without a cap happily opens the door to find a stern Ōishi. His compatriot runs through the forest with Inukai slung over his shoulder only to run into Akasaka. Meanwhile, Ōishi bodily throws the kidnapper without the cap to the ground. Akasaka chases the other kidnapper through the forest. The kidnapper trips, drops Inukai, then Akasaka takes the opportunity to tackle him. He immediately kicks Akasaka in the face. Inukai cowers behind Akasaka who confirms his identity. The kidnapper demands to know who Akasaka is; Akasaka demands that he give up. After a brief repartee, the other kidnapper appears smiling, though with bruses on his face. Akasaka demands to know what happened to Ōishi; the kidnapper implies that he knocked him unconscious. He then pulls out a gun and fires, wounding Akasaka in his upper left chest. When Inukai asks the required, "are you alright," Akasaka of course smiles, winks, and responds that he is fine. Unappreciative of Akasaka fulfillment of his role as a hero, the kidnapper without the hat but with a gun levels it at him again and warns Akasaka not to trifle with him, for he will show no mercy. Akasaka grits his teeth and remembers his wife smiling as she declares that she and her baby will be waiting for him as she pats her pregnant belly. From behind, Ōishi rushes and tackles the kidnapper. He loses his gun, and the wounded Akasaka recovers it. When the kidnapper tries to rise, he finds Ōishi's revolver pointed at his head. The kidnappers flee. When Akasaka asks Ōishi why he let them flee, Ōishi confesses that he cannot "do it by myself. And they know it well." He explains that a policeman cannot shoot people running away in the back, then laughs and adds that he also wants his retirement bonus. Ōishi then approaches the boy to confirm his identity. He then proclaims that the situation will be a problem, and there will be a scapegoat as he turns and laughs at Akasaka. Akasaka then promptly collapses due to his injury, and Ōishi rushes to help him. Akasaka awakens in the Irie Clinic to see Irie and a nurse ministering to him. Continuing the troph, Irie assures him that the bullet "passed through cleanly," and he just needs to rest for a day. Ōishi enters the room, and Irie and the nurse leave. After their greetings, Akasaka asks if the kidnappers were arrested. Ōishi begins to answer "unfortunately," and Akasaka interrupts him to ask about Toshiki. Ōishi responds that he is well and being taken care of at the Okinomiya Police Station. Akasaka relaxes a bit, but Ōishi informs him that there is another thing he must tell him: the cabinent minister decided to freeze the dam project. Ōishi suspects that in exchange for the safe return of his grandson, he withdrew the plan. As Akasaka protests, Ōishi suggests that if they had done nothing, Toshiki would have been freed. As he walks to the window, Ōishi tells Akasaka that a more powerful force or organization may be at work. When Akasaka asks what he means, Ōishi smiles and confesses it is only his own thinking. Nevertheless, he continues, the two kidnappers were highly trained. Akasaka agrees that as he feels his chest wound; Ōishi notes that the kidnapper's shooting skill "was also precise." Later that night, the rapidly recovered Akasaka tries to use a payphone in the clinic only to find it dead. Inspecting it, he finds the cord cut. He makes his way to a nearby convenience store only to find its payphone also cut. He eventually finds the Hinamizawa payphone located on the side of the road under a street lamp. He finds again that the cord has been cut. Rika arrives suddenly. With a smile, she tells him that injured people should not sneak out of the hospital. He asks her if she cut the cords; she merely replies that even if he called it would only make him sad. He accepts this and makes his way back to the clinic. Rika tags along. Akasaka asks her if her house is also along the way. When she says it is, he accompanies her to the foot of the Furude Shrine. She happily announces that this is the day of the ''Watanagashi'' Festival. Though, like all festivals, it is boring, Rika asks him if he would like to see it. Akasaka agrees, and Rika smiles. She runs happily up the steps. He follows her to see a group of people preparing for the festival. "See? A boring festival, right?" Rika asks. Akasaka admits that the preparations do not look like a festival. Rika explains that what they are doing is not even near the Watanagashi Festival. She then looks down so her eyes are shadowed and runs a few step from him. She then turns, smiles, and waves. Akasaka finds her behavior surprising. He follows her to the scenic view from the shrine. As they look at Hinamizawa below, Rika observes that the village looks calm from their view. Akasaka, recalling their earlier conversation, notes that she proclaimed that the dam project would not submerge the village. Rika only stares. Akasaka asks her why she thought that way. Rika responds that she does not understand "difficult topics." Akasaka laughs it off, then announces that she should be glad. He explains that peace will return to the village. "Peace?" Rika asks, "To this village?" Akasaka insists it will; Rika asks, "Even though every year from now, gruesome, bloody things will occur?" She then laughs. Her voice gradually shifts to her Adult Voice: "In a few years, I will be killed." Akasaka asks her why, but she merely replies, "This has been decided." She explains that the village is filled with those "who don't care about people's lives." As the Full Moon hangs over Hinamizawa, Rika in her Adult Voice admits that even if she tells him, nothing will changed, but she suggests that stopping the tragedies could be like erasing the reflection of the Moon on the waters by casting a pebble. Akasaka does not understand, and Rika merely smiles. Second Half In an airport, Ōishi meets the arriving Akasaka "a few years" later. Akasaka narrates that he reunited with Ōishi who retired and moved to his mother's hometown of Sapporo. He admits that he wished to see Ōishi to confirm something. As they sit on a bus, he shows Ōishi a picture of him with his daughter Miyuki on her first day of school. Looking at the picture, Ōishi muses that Miyuki was born from her "late mother's womb," and is the reincarnation of her mother, Yukie. As Ōishi talks, Akasaka remembers that his wife died on the night of the Watanagashi Festival. As he imagines the scene, he narrates that he learned that Yukie would go to the roof of the hospital to gaze at the sunset everyday. As she returned to her room, she lost her footing on the stairs and fell. He adds that he heard Yukie told a nurse to whom she had become close that, "When he's far away under the same sky, I want to pray for his safety." He recalls asking Rika if she cut the cords and her response. He knows that Rika discerned Yukie's death and pitied him. He then remembers when he first met her and she told him, in her Adult Voice, to go back to Tōkyō, or he would regret it. He admits that had he known the outcome, he would have abandoned his duties and returned. As Ōishi continues to dote over the picture, Akasaka thinks of Yukie and looks sad. At a formal restaurant, where they both wear yukata and drink saki, Ōishi accepts for the moment that Rika could predict the future: "Then why couldn't she predict that major disaster?" Akasaka recalls that at the end of June, 1983, toxic volcanic gas from Onigafuchi Swamp hit Hinamizawa at midnight and killed all of the inhabitants. Even now, the village is quarrantined. Ōishi continues to note that Oyashiro-sama's reincarnation, Rika, also died, so the village incited Oyashiro-sama's anger, which releases the noxious gas from the swamp, or so say the survivors. Akasaka picks up on the fact that Ōishi claimed that Rika was "killed." ''Ōishi explains that earlier on the day of the catastrophe, around noon, her corpse was discovered at the shrine. Over a flashback from ''Tatarigoroshi-hen, Ōishi describes that she was "naked and barefoot." They determined that after a drug-induced coma, she was transported there, her abdomen opened, and her intestines pulled out. Akasaka asks if Ōishi is sure about the drug-induced coma, since that means the incisions in her belly were made while she was still alive. Ōishi nods. Akasaka then produces a magazine and asks him about the other serial mysterious deaths and Oyashiro-sama's curse. Looking over the article, Ōishi suggests that Akasaka can only say that now since the deaths went on for five years and ended with the disaster: "Back then, those incidents happened by chance every year on Watanagashi." He admits that every year, everyone hoped that "nothing happens this year." Akasaka suggests that the deaths did no happen by "chance," and "that little girl" knew everything. He reveals that Rika predicted all of the serial deaths to him. He explains to Ōishi that the primary purpose of his trip is to discover the link between the "Oyashiro-sama serial murders." Thinking on it, Ōishi realizes that suggests that all of the deaths were planned a year before they started. Akasaka adds that the scenarios included Rika's murder, and she knew about it. Ōishi asks the obvious question: why did she not try to escape? Why did she accept her death without trying to avoid it? Why did she not warn someone? Akasaka looks down and realizes that she did, but he failed to act on it. He flashbacks to her talking to him at the railing in her Adult Voice: "On this day next year . . . Yes, on this day in June 1979, the Construction Manager will be killed." She describes how his body will be dismembered and thrown away. The next year on this day, she continues, Satoko's parents will be pushed off of a cliff. The following year, on the same day, her parents will die. The next year, Satoko's "mean aunt" will have her head bashed in. The next year on the same day or a few days later, "I will be killed." She then asks, if all of the predicted deaths happen, "is the last death also in the prediction?" When Akasaka tries to ask her what she means, Rika explains that to live her life happily is her only wish and nothing more: "I don't want to die." As the higurashi cry, there are scenes of the Furude Shrine, school, and other familiar places that have been left uninhabited since the disaster. In narration, Akasaka notes that the quarantine remains in effect. Post-End Titles Rika's Adult Voice contends that: *"What meets is the compensation for kindness. What falls is the maze to sadness. What burns are thoughts towards vengeance." After announcing the next arc and episode, over the determined face of Hōjō Satoshi she asks: *"Can you believe it?" Characters In order of appearance *Inukai Toshiki *Kidnappers *Irie Kyōsuke *Ōishi Kuraudo *Akasaka Mamoru *Furude Rika *Akasaka Yukie (flashback) *Irie Clinic Nurse (unnamed) *Villagers from Hinamizawa *People in the airport *Akasaka Miyuki (in picture) *Oyashiro-sama (mentionned) *Construction Manager (mentioned) *Hōjō Satoko (mentioned) *Satoko's parents (mentioned) *Rika's parents (mentioned) *Hōjō Tamae (mentionned) *Hōjō Satoshi (next episode preview) Referbacks and Forwards *The kidnappers contact Irie. *Rika knows that Akasaka and Irie will pass that point, just as she knows he will try to use payphones, as she knows about the coming murders including her own. *Irie finds the visit disturbing. *Ōishi in this and in a later arc demonstrates knowledge of Jūdō. *Akasaka uses the payphone that Keiichi ends up in in Onikakushi-hen. *There is one bike at the foot of the Furude Shrine. *Why Rika cannot predict the Great Hinamizawa Disaster. *The Great Hinamizawa Disaster also occurs at the end of the previous Tatarigoroshi-hen as well as in later arcs. *The mode of Rika's death matches Takano Miyo's description of the origin of Watanigashi ''in ''Tatarigoroshi-hen. *Rika cannot predict the exact day of her death as she can with the others. Trivia *Toshiki's scar does not match incisions used to treat abdominal trauma or really anything. *The Blue Ray release has an error in the title translation in that it repeats the translation from the previous episode. When They Cry Wiki blames Hanyū. *''When They Cry Wiki'' further notes that despite the television and movie "just a flesh-wound" trope, a through-and-through gunshot wound to the upper left chest is not a minor matter, despite the claimed skill of the assailant. For this, When They Cry Wiki blames Rika's kimchee. Cultural References *''Ojisan'': Toshiki calls Akasaka "uncle" or ojisan (伯父さん・おじさん). This is a polite address to an older man. Mion refers to herself as "this uncle" when she is with her friends since she is older than all of them. Some will translate that as "this old man." *''Yukata'' Memorable Moments *Akasaka remembers Rika's warnings. *Ōishi reveals that Rika is considered Oyashiro-sama's reincarnation. Quotes *"Now this is kind of like checkmate." - Ōishi *"In other words, the minister and suspects' deal is completed." - Ōishi *"Injured people shouldn't sneak out of the hospital." - Rika *"Even if you called, it would only make you sad, Akasaka." - Rika *"Peace? To this village?" - Rika *"Even if I tell you this, nothing will change. But erasing the Moon called Death reflected on the water's surface by casting a pebble may be possible." - Rika Gallery Rika in the Rain.png|Rika sadly watches Akasaka and Ōishi pass. Akasaka wound.png|'Not Shown:' "Just a flesh wound!" Not Depicted a Chest Tube.png|'Not Depicted:' the chest tube Category:Episodes Category:Himatsubushi-hen Episodes Category:Anime